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Turkish Kurdistan (Kurdish: Bakurê Kurdistanê) is the Southeastern part of Turkey predominantly inhabited by Kurds and is the larger and northern part of the greater cultural and geographical area in the Middle East known as Kurdistan. Turkish Kurdistan is not recognized by the Turkish government, and is thus not clearly defined. The use of the term Kurdistan is highly disputed, and is vigorously rejected by the Turkish state. According to The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Turkish Kurdistan covers at least 17 provinces of Turkey: Erzincan, Erzurum, Kars, Malatya, Tunceli, Elazığ, Bingöl, Muş, Ağrı, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis, Van, Şanlıurfa aka Urfa, Mardin and Hakkâri .
History
Main article: History of the KurdsAccording to Evliya Çelebi, regions of Erzurum, Van, Hakkari, Diyarbakir, Jazira (located in present-day Turkey) formed parts of Kurdistan in 17th century .
Following World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Kurds were promised an independent nation-state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. Turkish army, however, rejected the terms of the treaty, and following the defeat of the Greek forces in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923 in Turkey's favor. Lausanne treaty specified all of Turkey's boundaries except the one with Iraq. Here there was only a provisional frontier called the "Brussels line." After prolonged tensions, Ankara eventually signed a treaty in July 1926 that made the Brussels line the international frontier, leaving the Mosul region in Iraq.
Since that time Kurdish nationalists have continued to seek independence in an area approximating that identified at Sèvres. However, the idea of an independent nation-state came to a halt when the surrounding countries joined to reject the independence of Kurdistan.
Kurdish internally displaced people (IDP) in Turkey
Security forces in Turkey forcibly displaced Kurdish rural communities during the 1980s and 1990s in order to combat the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgency, which drew its membership and logistical support from the local peasant population. By the mid-1990s, more than 3,000 villages had been virtually wiped from the map, and, according to official figures, 378,335 Kurdish villagers had been displaced and left homeless.(see , and . Also see Report D612, October, 1994, "Forced Displacement of Ethnic Kurds"(A Human Rights Watch Publication) )
PKK insurgency
Main article: Kurdistan Workers PartyThe Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), also known as KADEK and Kongra-Gel, is a militant organization, dedicated to creating an independent Kurdish state in a territory (sometimes referenced as Kurdistan) that consists of parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran. Its original ideology was based on revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and Kurdish nationalism ( it has since then dropped the Marxist-Leninist ideology ). It is an ethnic secessionist organization using force and threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal. The organization was founded in 1973 by Abdullah Ocalan. Countries such as USA and the European union designate the PKK as a terrorist organization.
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Ferry Van aproaching Van harbour
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Diyarbakır's early Byzantine city walls stretch unbroken for 6 kilometres
Major cities
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See also
External links
- Comparing Ethnic Conflicts in Kosovo and Turkish Kurdistan
- Newroz 2005, Turkish Kurdistan
- Newroz 2004, Turkish Kurdistan
- Kurds, Kurdistan, The Encyclopaedia of Islam.
- Maps of Kurdish Regions by GlobalSecurity.org
- Map of Kurdish Population Distribution by GlobalSecurity.org
